FIFA 13 is top selling game of 2013, EA is top publisher

A pan-European top 20 of game sales for the first half of 2013 has shown that Tomb Raider is the best-selling new game of the year.

The chart below shows the best-selling games of the first half of this year, not including digital sales. Compiled by GfK International, who also own Chart-Track, it combines retail data from 20 different countries.

Only 10 of the top-selling selling games were actually released in 2013, with the top two both having launched last year. The best-selling game to be released in 2013 is Tomb Raider, while the second best is also the best-selling individual format title: the PlayStation 3’s The Last Of Us.

As is the nature of the mass market there are relatively few surprises in the list, although it’s curious to see God Of War: Ascension so far up – given the franchise has never been as popular in Europe as it is in America and this entry in particular was more heavily criticised than others.

What’s perhaps most surprising about the whole list though is simply how low all the figures are, with even the near 2 million sales of FIFA 13 being small beans if it was the second half of the year.

As well as unit sales figures for each game GfK International has also provided a list of the top 10 publishers in Europe. Although it’s organised by revenue rather than by sales numbers, which is why Nintendo is so high despite only having two games in the top 20.